Healing Type 1 Diabetes

Ion Cleanse

I finally solved my morning blood sugars by increasing my basal rate all day from .425 per hour to 1.0. I was surprised that it worked, but it did and I guess that was what I needed. I thought my blood sugars during the day were good, but maybe I was over-bolusing for my meals.

Then about a week and a half later, I crashed a couple of times so I have recently reduced my basal rate to .75. I think it is working. Wow, what a balancing act. It's so frustrating sometimes.

Lately I have been doing foot detox baths. They are called ion cleanses. I did 8 in December for $20 each because they had a special going on. Now I buy packages of $100 for 4 foot baths, so they are still very reasonable. I am going once a week during my lunch hour. They muscle test me and I consistently test as needing the etheric cleanse. There is also an organ cleanse and a master cleanse.

I always get lots of stuff out of my joints. Sometimes black flecks show up that are heavy metal. Last time some brown flecks showed up from my liver. Here is a link to the place I go to and their description of the ion cleanse - http://clearhorizons.net/IonCleanseOverview.htm. I highly recommend them!

Here is a picture of last night's supper - chicken with lemon juice, marinara sauce, mushrooms, and provolone cheese.

Still Learning how to Work with my Dawn Phenomenom

I am still experiencing morning blood sugars in the low 200's.

At first I thought about titling this post as "Still Fighting with my Dawn Phenomenom" but decided to go with a more positive message instead.

I mean we have (the United States) had a war on cancer going on for a long time and now we have a war on obesity. I definitely don't like that negative connotation.

Some say the reason we get cancer is that it's our body's way to help us survive a little longer, otherwise we would have succumbed already and died. So maybe we should learn how to improve the person's health instead of fighting the cancer, or perhaps a little of both.

The second war has a blame factor where we are, in essence, fighting with people who are obese. Not good. The way our society is set up has made it hard to stay slim, especially for those with the thrifty gene. And there is more to it than willpower and calories in/calories out. Any type of prejudice is bad. Smile and be kind to everyone, including the overweight.

I thought back to one time when I was drinking only vegetable juice and my need for insulin disappeared except for in the early morning hours. I would be level all day and then wake up with a 300 blood sugar. So I really think a more pronounced Dawn Phenomenom is a healing sign for me.

I have been slowly increasing my basal rate everyday and will keep doing so until I wake up with a normal blood sugar. Right now my basal rate is .425 per hour most of the time but 1.25 between the hours of 2 am and 5 am.

Here's a picture of some scrambled eggs with mushrooms I had over the weekend.

Dawn Phenomenom

I had another blood sugar this morning in the low 200's. I've decided that perhaps it is due to the Dawn Phenomenom.

I never used to have much of a Dawn Phenomenom before, but now I am going to bed with a good blood sugar and then waking up to pee at 4 in the morning due to high blood sugars. I am wondering if maybe part of my healing process is to develop more of a Dawn Phenomenom, which of course my body does not react well to.

So I have increased my basal rate on my pump between 2 and 4 am. My normal basal rate is .425 per hour and I upped it to .8 for that time period. I will bump it up more if need be.

Here is a picture of one of my lunches over the weekend.

Vanishing Fingerprints

My blood sugar was 246 this morning and I'm not sure why. I thought perhaps my infusion site needed replacing, but I did do that over the weekend so that's not it - especially since my blood sugars seem to be well controlled during the day. Another possibility is that my insulin is getting old, but once again my blood sugars are doing well during the day.

The third possibility that I thought of is that Velveeta is bad. I had been using up a little Velveeta that I had leftover from Christmas and maybe I react to it like I react to grains and it affects my blood sugars for more than just a few hours. The Velveeta is gone now so we will see if my morning blood sugars improve.

I took my daughter to a naturopathic doctor over her Christmas break because of her hiccurp (that's what I call it, her friends call it her Pterodactyl noise) that happens frequently. The doctor recommended vitamins and improvements in diet for my vegetarian Celiac girl.

But one thing I found particularly interesting is that she pointed out how she doesn't really have fingerprints. Her fingertips are smooth. She said this is because of digestion issues. I also have smooth fingertips and am hoping with my low carb diet I will have fingerprints again in the future.

Here is a picture of one of my dinners of Smothered Primal Pork Chops with Mushrooms and French Green Beans. It was very yummy.

 

Back from Anime Convention

My blood sugar was 183 this morning. Yes, that is a little high and I have no idea why. But I feel great so I will keep on trucking with my 12 - 8 low carb diet (not a weight loss diet, just an eating plan diet). I have not crashed once since I started this on New Year's Day and that is very exciting for me.

I went to an anime convention called Ichibancon this past weekend and it was fun but tiring. My son and daughter went also. I dressed as Granny Pinako. The exciting thing is I stuck to my eating plan throughout the convention (pats self on back). I took food with me and that worked out great.

I believe I went through a detox for a few days. My muscles ached and one night I went through an emotional detox. I remembered a particularly bad time with my ex-husband and went through a wave of emotions. I also imagined a variety of scenarios on how I could have handled it differently. One included stabbing him! haha I think I have let go of that event's impact on me now.

I also thought I would finally include a picture of one of my Big Ass Salads (BAS).

 

Beware my Power - Green Lantern's Light!

My blood sugar was high this morning - 173. This is because I forgot to check & correct my bs at bedtime. I ate a lot last night (5 small olives, 1 oz of raw cheese, 2 brazil nuts, 5 pecan halves, 2 fried eggs cooked with a pemmican bar) and I wasn't sure how much insulin to take. Now I know that 1 unit would have done it, which is good.

I am trying to avoid crashing since I am only eating between 12 and 8 and so far it is going well. I feel the morning hours help me to check that my basal rate is good. I've only gotten a tiny bit hungry one time but it went away. I feel lighter and I think my body is enjoying the extra time to process the food I eat.

Okay, on to the lighter part of my post. I love the Christmas gift that my daughter gave me. It's fun and it encourages me to drink more tea. It can't be put in the dishwasher or microwave but that works out perfect for me at work. I wash it by hand and add hot water to it from the coffee machine.

Here it is - a Green Lantern mug! First a picture of it empty or with a cold beverage in it and then a picture of it with a hot beverage in it.

Probiotic Kefir

My blood sugar this morning was 123.

I have read many articles on the benefits of probiotic supplements. But, recently, I read one that was a little different. It still talked about the benefits but the writer believed that taking a supplement with specific probiotics in it was not the best way to do it. She believed that forced our intestines to adapt to probiotics that perhaps weren't natural for us. In essence, we were "re-mapping" our intestinal flora.

She believed the best way to ingest probiotics was by the way of fermented foods or drinks. That makes sense to me because many cultures include fermented foods in their diet.

A long time ago I bought the ingredients to make my own kefir and never got around to doing it. So this time I bought a probiotic kefir at Whole Foods made with coconut water - http://www.inner-eco.com/. It says to start with 1 T a day and work up to 8 T maximum. I am up to 3 T. I take it in the morning without any food. It tastes pretty good. I am using the original flavor.

So, hopefully, this will help to naturally rebuild my natural flora and boost my immune system.

Intermittent Fasting by Eating only Between Noon and Eight p.m.

My fasting blood sugar this morning was 128 - not bad. Not great but not bad.

If you haven't discovered marksdailyapple.com yet, I highly recommend that you check it out. He promotes a very low carb diet and exercise and I find his articles really helpful.

One topic he discusses on occasion is intermittent fasting (IF). There are a few ways to do IF. One is to do a juice fast for a week perhaps with every change in the season. One way is to not eat solid foods one day a week, say on Sundays. The third way is to limit the hours that you eat everyday. Mark suggests eating only between the hours of noon and 8:00 pm for this type of IF.

He discusses the benefits of IF, so check it out if you want to find out what they are. The logic that appeals to me is that our ancestors did not have refrigerators and freezers, so obviously they practiced IF (by necessity). And also, digestion takes a lot of energy so the more time we free our bodies from having to digest the more time it has to heal and detox.

I have elected to only eat (very low carb) between noon and 8:00 pm starting on the 1st. I believe this approach works best with Type 1 Diabetes. Of course, if my sugar starts to crash I will eat no matter what time it is.

But that was not my new year's resolution - that was to record less shows on the DVR. I have cancelled lots of shows and kept only the ones I 'love'. I am hoping to open up time in my life for more exercise.

It WAS the gum!

I haven't blogged in a while because my daughter was home for her fall break from college. It was great seeing her and the good news is, I did stick to my primal diet.

I went to see my endo & DE (Diabetes Educator) yesterday. They were very impressed with my progress. 6 weeks ago I had an A1c of 9.5 and this time I had my best A1c ever of 7.9!

In case you don't know, an A1c is a blood test that shows your average blood sugars for the last 3 months - with the most recent month having a bigger weight in the average than the other 2 months. Non-diabetics have an A1c of 4.5 - 5.5. They usually shoot for diabetics to get their A1c under 7. Dr. Bernstein, however, the author of the book "Diabetes Solution" that I am reading - shoots for diabetics to have normal A1c readings.

My DE reviewed my log and was impressed with my improved blood sugars. She noticed I was no longer letting my pump decide how much insulin to give me for a meal. I always do a manual bolus for meals, but I do let the pump calculate how much insulin to give me to adjust for a higher blood sugar.

This is because the pump decides on a meal bolus based on the number of carbs in the meal. This doesn't work for me because I often have to give myself insulin for a zero carb meal/snack. I need 2 units for a handful of nuts and 1/2 unit for 2 eggs, for example. So, in the end, she agreed with me.

But she said I am the most sensitive to insulin and to food that she has ever met. That's the story of my life. lol

At one point my DE was noticing the 200's and upper 100's during the first few days of the log I provided to her. I told her my theory about sugarless gum causing that and how when I quit my blood sugars went down. I thought she would think I was crazy. But since by then she realized how sensitive I was, she agreed with me. Sugarless gum has sugar alcohols in it that do convert to .5 or 1 gram of carb. So she could see how that would affect me.

October 6th - quit chewing gum today, so tomorrow's blood sugars are better

• 5:00 pm     206 bs     1.3 units
• 7:45 pm                         1.0 unit - Ate 1 oz. cheese & 10 small olives
• 8:17 pm     227 bs         .7 unit - Ate 3 eggs & 2 bacon & took 1.2 units more
• 11:09 pm   217 bs         .6 unit - My legs were jumpy so I took another unit

October 7th

• 6:47 am     112 bs        .1 unit - disconnected for a few minutes
• 7:47 am     130 bs       .2 unit
• 8:30 am                                        - Ate eggs & bacon & took 1 unit
• 11:58 am    152 bs       .6 unit - Ate large salad & took 5 units
• 3:53 pm     220 bs     1.5 units
• 4:00 pm                                        - Drove to pick up my daughter from college (4 hours driving in total) & ate a lettuce, turkey, & cheese roll during the drive
• 10:14 pm   148 bs       .8 unit - Ate 1.5 oz. peanuts & took 2 units
• 1:34 am      179 bs       .9 unit

October 8th

• 9:42 am     113 bs       .1 unit - Ate 3 eggs & 2 bacon & took 1.2 units
• 1:30 pm                                       - Disconnected pump for shower
• 2:00 pm    199 bs     1.2 units
• 3:00 pm                                      - Ate 5 carb greek yogurt with almonds & cacao nibs & took 2 units
• 7:55 pm     123 bs      .2 unit - Ate Quizno's salad with chicken & took 5 units
• 12:30 am     73 bs                     - Ate cheese, nuts, & olives

October 9th

• 10:17 am     79 bs                      - Ate 3 eggs & 1 bacon & took 1 unit
• 2:23 pm     133 bs     .4 unit   - Ate cheese & olives & took 1 unit
• 4:00 pm    110 bs                      - Drove 1 1/2 hours to take daughter & friends to haunted event & ate string cheese & nuts during the drive
• 9:04 pm    114 bs     .1 unit    - Drove 1 1/2 hours back from haunted event

October 10th

• 7:33 am     144 bs       .5 unit  - showered without pump
• 9:30 am     124 bs                      - Ate 1 egg & took .2 unit
• 2:00 pm     156 bs                      - Ate cauliflower & cheese dish & large salad & took 4.5 units
• 8:08 pm     132 bs       .4 unit  - Ate cheese & olives & took 1 unit
• 9:00 pm                                        - Ate 3 eggs & 2 bacon & took 1.2 unit
• 12:00 am     62 bs                      - Ate 5 carb yogurt with almonds & cacao nibs

October 11th

• 6:27 am     213 bs     1.4 units - disconnected while got ready for work
• 7:20 am     243 bs     1.0 unit 
• 9:45 am     144 bs       .5 unit  - Ate 1 egg & took .2 unit
• 11:44 am   106 bs                      - Ate steamed broccoli & large salad & took 3.5 units
•  4:45 pm                                        - Ate cheese & 5 small olives
• 5:00 pm                                         - Drove 2 hours to take my daugher back to college & ate nuts during the drive
• 7:51 pm     106 bs                       - Drove 2 hours back home & ate some more nuts
• 10:30pm                                       - Was so tired that I forgot to check my blood sugar & bolus for the nuts

October 12th

• 6:24 am     225 bs     1.5 units - Disconnected for an hour
• 7:30 am     217 bs        .8 unit

The main thing I learned during my appointment was that I should bolus before I disconnect to shower and get ready for work. Since my basal rate is .45 unit per hour I will now bolus .5 unit in the morning before I disconnect (if I expect to be disconnected for an hour).

Sensitive to Everything

Yesterday

• 5:49 pm     130 bs         .3 unit
• 6:40 pm                        2.0 units - 1.5 oz cashews
• 8:00 pm                        1.0 unit   - 1 oz cheese, 10 small olives
• 8:17 pm     135 bs       1.0 units - 3 eggs, 2 turkey bacon from Trader Joe's
• 11:06 pm   165 bs         .8 unit   

Today

• 7:24 am     220 bs     1.5 units - Disconnected pump and showered & got ready for work.
• 8:41 am     170 bs        .4 unit
• 11:40 am   171 bs        .8 unit - Ate large mexican salad with meat & took 5 more units.

I increased my basal (24 hr insulin) rate today. I did not like that 220 bs this morning. So I increased from .45 per hour to .475 which is an increase from 10 units a day to 11.4. If my blood sugar is still high tomorrow morning, I will probably increase it again.

I am trying to figure out what I am doing differently from when I was getting those great morning blood sugars of 80 to 100. I thought of one thing. I started chewing sugarless gum again. I was told once, based on kinesiology, that I react badly to sugar substitutes. So starting today I am not chewing any, for awhile at least.

You may laugh, "Gum? I doubt it!" And you may be right. But based on experience I seem to be sensitive to a lot of things and you never know. Besides, I know sugar substitutes are not good for any of us.

Genetically, I feel a little short-changed. I am the second of 4 girls and I think I got the short end of the stick. They all have thick hair and I got thin, fine hair. I developed the worst vision, by far, of all of us. I was the only one with buck teeth. I was the only one that had to wear corrective shoes all through grade school, yuk! I was the only one that would itch after I was bathed with certain soaps (my mom noticed this when I was little). My scalp breaks out with bumps if I use certain shampoos, like Suave. I'm the only one who can only wear gold or silver pierced earrings, I react to others, etc., etc.

So when I think that perhaps my blood sugars are reacting to sugarless gum, then this is why. I just seem to be sensitive to a lot of things.

But I do want to maintain an attitude of gratitude which is very healthy for everyone. So I am grateful for my sensitive body. Perhaps it is helping me to avoid things that are bad for everyone long term, but other people just don't know it. Even avoiding grains might be healthy in other ways for me than just keeping my blood sugars down.

And I am also grateful that my blood sugars are not fluctuating wildly on me like they used to do. I am not going up over 300 and then crashing all in the same day. I feel great. But I will keep working at it and try to bring them down.